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Can any one give me game board tips on how to make one. what do you like to play on ice grass sand..... Pictures of game boards that you made would be great to see. Also any cool home made scenery would be great to see and please have how you made the scenery to.

If you're looking for a good set of ideas, I would look towards Woodland Scenics for general landscapes. They sell really nice foliage, etc., and plenty of tools and inspiration. It's a good way cheaper than GW, too.

However, because of the current ruleset terrain isn't really all that helpful; most people play on modular pieces of plywood with some buildings scattered around, as 8th edition fantasy doesn't play nice with terrain.

Ya woodland scenics has some really nice trees and stuff but shipping to Canada is killer ($25+ which sucks so you have to find someone who sells it in your area if you can).

Ya terrain doesn't do much now so I just put down some forests and some stuff that blocks movement (brick walls, hills whatever).

My terrain is more 40k terrain with some building and stuff that is more 40k oriented but I like forests and hills and cliffs because it blocks movement when playing fantasy.

If you're looking to build fantasy terrain on the cheap, then here's some supplies to get you started:

1) Foam Cutter - this thing is worth its weight in gold. It's basically just a big wire that gets heated up by a pair of batteries in the handle, and cuts through foam like butter. Practice with it and you'll figure out how to get some cool rock-like effects going on your hills and cliffs.

2) Carpenter's Glue - this stuff is worlds better than the white glue that kids use for crafts. It dries harder, waters more evenly, and is generally just better to use. Get a cheap paint brush to spread it on, and just remember to wash it really well before the glue dries and ruins it.

3) Sand - you can buy this in bulk from your hardware or garden store, which is really where you should be buying most of your scenery supplies if you're on the cheap. Hobby stores are great but everything there is very expensive. Just be aware that you'll probably have to buy WAY more sand than you'll ever need. You can also just head down to the beach and get sand for free Glue the sand down with watered carpenter's glue, though be aware that it's super messy.

Alternatively, you can head to your local arts store and pick up some pummice gel. It's more expensive, but this stuff is fething amazing. It's a gel medium filled with little bits of pummice stone in whatever level of granularity you wish to buy. You can even mix paint into it to save you from having to base-coat. More expensive than the sand+glue method, but it's easier, cleaner, and more resilient. This stuff dries rock hard and is practically invincible.

4) Foam - You CAN reuse packing foam that you have lying around. Frankly though I wouldn't recommend it. It's really fragile, and terrain generally gets handled pretty roughly, so it won't last long. If you are using cheap styrofoam then make sure to seal the surface with carpenter's glue after you shape it to protect the surface. Otherwise just buy some foam from the hardware store. You're looking for something thick and sturdy (don't worry, your foam cutter will still go through it like a hot knife through butter). They're usually inch-thick sheets, and the stuff we always buy is blue. Sorry that I can't be of better help.

To build hills just glue sheets together to get roughly the shape you want, then go at it with the foam cutter.

6) Wire - wire is good for everything, but most importantly as a base to sculpt or anchor other things on. You can make trees by making a frame out of wire then wrapping the wire in masking tape, then covering it in glue or putty.

7) Balsa wood - it's fragile, but great. You can make all sorts of things out of balsa wood.

8) Bark - painted grey, bark looks surprisingly like rock. Especially if you shave it down just a little bit.

9) Spray Paint - specifically an acrylic spray paint like Krylon H20. NORMAL SPRAY PAINT MELTS FOAM. You don't want to spend all that time shaping your foam scenery only to destroy it with spray paint. Krylon h20 is safe for foam, and is probably the best undercoat you're going to find. Otherwise you can use regular hardware store paint and just apply it with a brush, though this is a pain in the ass and doesn't always adhere well to foam.

10) Plasticard, or styrene sheets - this stuff is a godsend for modellers. You can texture it, cut it to whatever shape you want, and the world is your oyster. It's kind of expensive though so use it only for smaller stuff.

PirateRobotNinjaofDeath wrote:
If you're looking to build fantasy terrain on the cheap, then here's some supplies to get you started:

1) Foam Cutter - this thing is worth its weight in gold. It's basically just a big wire that gets heated up by a pair of batteries in the handle, and cuts through foam like butter. Practice with it and you'll figure out how to get some cool rock-like effects going on your hills and cliffs.

2) Carpenter's Glue - this stuff is worlds better than the white glue that kids use for crafts. It dries harder, waters more evenly, and is generally just better to use. Get a cheap paint brush to spread it on, and just remember to wash it really well before the glue dries and ruins it.

3) Sand - you can buy this in bulk from your hardware or garden store, which is really where you should be buying most of your scenery supplies if you're on the cheap. Hobby stores are great but everything there is very expensive. Just be aware that you'll probably have to buy WAY more sand than you'll ever need. You can also just head down to the beach and get sand for free Glue the sand down with watered carpenter's glue, though be aware that it's super messy.

Alternatively, you can head to your local arts store and pick up some pummice gel. It's more expensive, but this stuff is fething amazing. It's a gel medium filled with little bits of pummice stone in whatever level of granularity you wish to buy. You can even mix paint into it to save you from having to base-coat. More expensive than the sand+glue method, but it's easier, cleaner, and more resilient. This stuff dries rock hard and is practically invincible.

4) Foam - You CAN reuse packing foam that you have lying around. Frankly though I wouldn't recommend it. It's really fragile, and terrain generally gets handled pretty roughly, so it won't last long. If you are using cheap styrofoam then make sure to seal the surface with carpenter's glue after you shape it to protect the surface. Otherwise just buy some foam from the hardware store. You're looking for something thick and sturdy (don't worry, your foam cutter will still go through it like a hot knife through butter). They're usually inch-thick sheets, and the stuff we always buy is blue. Sorry that I can't be of better help.

To build hills just glue sheets together to get roughly the shape you want, then go at it with the foam cutter.

6) Wire - wire is good for everything, but most importantly as a base to sculpt or anchor other things on. You can make trees by making a frame out of wire then wrapping the wire in masking tape, then covering it in glue or putty.

7) Balsa wood - it's fragile, but great. You can make all sorts of things out of balsa wood.

8) Bark - painted grey, bark looks surprisingly like rock. Especially if you shave it down just a little bit.

9) Spray Paint - specifically an acrylic spray paint like Krylon H20. NORMAL SPRAY PAINT MELTS FOAM. You don't want to spend all that time shaping your foam scenery only to destroy it with spray paint. Krylon h20 is safe for foam, and is probably the best undercoat you're going to find. Otherwise you can use regular hardware store paint and just apply it with a brush, though this is a pain in the ass and doesn't always adhere well to foam.

10) Plasticard, or styrene sheets - this stuff is a godsend for modellers. You can texture it, cut it to whatever shape you want, and the world is your oyster. It's kind of expensive though so use it only for smaller stuff.

Just want to concur with everything that's said here, really great advice there. Literally every point PirateRobotNinjaofDeath said is pretty invaluable. I remember when I got my first Foam Cutter (and they're really not expensive) the quality of my scenery went up tenfold - it's pretty hard to do a similar thing with a hot knife.

I guess only thing I wish I'd known when I first started making scenery was how useful it is to plan what you're doing first, I found drawing little designs and thinking all the little details through before I actually started making anything really made the process a lot easier. Saves you getting half way through a project and finding out something is impossible to achieve because you've done something in the wrong order, for example. Good luck though!

 Rumpelstiltskin wrote:
I guess only thing I wish I'd known when I first started making scenery was how useful it is to plan what you're doing first, I found drawing little designs and thinking all the little details through before I actually started making anything really made the process a lot easier. Saves you getting half way through a project and finding out something is impossible to achieve because you've done something in the wrong order, for example. Good luck though!

Oh yeah, and very much this!! You can make passable terrain by just combining all those things in a slap-dash manner, but it takes time and careful planning to make something really epic.

For instance, my buddy made THIS with nothing but the techniques listed above and some experimentation with water effects (he ended up using two different kinds: one pourable to serve as still water and a base for the rest, the other sculptable to create the texture of moving water and that waterfall). He spent HOURS planning it out ahead of time, but he did it and it looks fething amazing. He's got some other things planned that will make it from amazing to mind-boggling.


Here's the picture:

I would love to see the board your friend is working on I bet it looks great. What army does he have in the picture

That'd be his Bretonnian army. They're a fantastic army for an experienced player and hobbyist as every single model is an open canvas for free-handed heraldry and patterns. Every single model is unique, most of them have been converted, and though all of that kind of blends in together at a distance, up close you can tell and the display board draws you right in.

The link above goes to his painting blog if you want to check out the progress. Specifically I linked to the page showing his WiP on the display board, so you can see how he created this terrain piece.

I looked at the link your friend a has a real gift I will try to make my own. Thanks I might get a few Bretonnian models to paint.